Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-01-10

Too late!
AS if launched from a catapult great
spot cd body springs from the reeds and
falls upon the ranks of the birds, who,
thus taken by surprise. close their wings
again at the very moment they were
about to rise.
"A jaguarr' we all shout together
1t was an enormous jaguar. too, that
had thus flung himself upon tGe unhap-
py birds, who seemed absolutely para
lyzed by the suddenness of this unex-
pected onset.
But now q thousand clamors ring
through the air above. At first they
were cries of fear and alarm; but now
they are rallying cries, bugle-calls,
sounding to arms. Right and left and
everywhere a thousand bugles are
soundingi What a tumut, what tur-
MOL, what a cacophony2 Far from
dreaming of flight. and fully re, overed
from their first surprise, the long-legged
birds all close in upon their assailant,
whose jaws and talons disembowel,
crush. tear them in vain. What mat
ter! he will never carry off his prey.
Are they not 3,000 Ten fail; fifty rush
to AXE their places.
There is a terrible carnage.
But all the prodigious leaps of the
| jaguar cannot now bear him out of the
| hemmed by the admirable tactics OF his
enemies. They have closed him in;
and, with their hard, black. conical
beaks, solid as steel. they keep piercing
his tanks and sides He thought he
was about to secure an easy prey; he is
already compelled to light as hard as
he knows how for his life. All about
the feline, victims whirl in ar-likc inn
mcnse shuttlccocks--t fall lfeless upon
a heap of corpses.
All! the brave blrds,-how courageous
they are!
! Every beak-stroke goes right through
the hide OF the jaguar, and is followed
! by gush of blood But the attack is
chiefly directed against the head of the
wild beast-they always keep striking
at him there, in spite of the awful jaw
that keeps opening and closing with 4
sound of grinding bones
In very little while the leaps of the
jaguar are less high; he turns and
turns upon himself, rushes first right
and then left; finally, abandoning the
! struggle, he strives TO seek safety in
flight. But he strives in vain. He
| cannot escape from those thousands of
! poniards which strike him necessarily
upon every side. and against which he
can no longer fight. The birds have
put out bis eyes. He is blind.
With the outpour of his blood from
thousand wounds his strength soon
leaves him. He staggers, falls, rises
only to fall again, and drag himself a
few feet further. 1t is all up with him.
In another minute his body is torn TO
shreds
The King of the South American Car
nivora is now only formless mass OF
qulyering flesh and fur
The victorious iiamingoes spread their
wings and rise.
| For a few moments we can follow the
flight (. the phenicopters, dazzling the
eye by the brilliancy of their llambovant
plumage and forming one immense and
| splendid fiery line under the last glcams
of sunset.
They sail away toward the west; they
melt into purple cloud; they disap-
pear.
IN their place we now see a cloud
black as Erebus previously invisible
whirling Tar above us in vast concen-
trio circles
After the battle the pillage! The
birds of prey are going to devour the
jaguar and his victims. From the
, French Of Henry LetarQue, IN NetO Or
leans Times Democrat